


penaltea

by horizonyunho



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aged Up NCT Dream, Alternate Universe - Football, FIFA World Cup 2022, M/M, Mentioned Lee Chan | Dino, Mentioned Shin Hoseok | Wonho, goalkeeper jisung, midfielder chenle, others are mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-05-18 18:45:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horizonyunho/pseuds/horizonyunho
Summary: Two things that were constant in Jisung's life were penalties and tea.





	penaltea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whoviee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoviee/gifts).



> so i made a doyu au on my twitter with a similar theme and well this happened

As goalkeeper, Jisung hated penalties the most.

 

Penalties were the segment that Jisung struggled in the most during their team practices, the segment where the managerial staff sighed and shook their heads. He was still young — he’d been promoted to the senior squad recently, a notable change in rigor from the youth team he was used to. The managerial staff often liked to remind him that they could rescind his promotion as easily as they had given it. Because of that Jisung worked harder whenever penalties were emphasized in their practices; playing on the senior squad and representing his country had been a childhood dream of his, and he wasn’t allowed to loosen his grasp on his dream over penalties. 

 

Eventually, Jisung managed to make enough progress that he was more often than not chosen as starting goalkeeper on both friendly and competitive matches; however, he was usually put on the bench whenever a competitive match was thought to end in penalties, or he was switched out right before the end. But even that was changing, as the World Cup qualifiers rolled around, and he took turns with the other goalkeepers, Chan and Hoseok, playing the different matches.

 

And the last match, against China, which would inevitably play a great part in deciding whether South Korea would advance into the World Cup or stay home, belonged to Jisung.

 

-

 

If there was one thing Jisung insisted on, it was his ritual of having a cup of tea before pre-game warmups began, in order to calm his nerves for the upcoming game. Unfortunately for him, though, the niche coffee shop that he usually ordered his tea from did not have any locations within a reasonable distance. However, there was a Starbucks less than ten minutes away from their hotel — where he headed after he had obtained permission from the staff that was present, taking Jaemin with him. It wasn’t the first time that Jisung had been to Starbucks, and it certainly wasn’t his first time accompanying Jaemin to a Starbucks, either. He ended up letting Jaemin order his drink, because Jaemin usually got Jisung some tea from his Starbucks trips whenever Jisung was unable to — game or no game. 

 

Jaemin quickly handed Jisung his tea immediately upon receiving it, leaving Jisung alone as he walked towards the far side of the shop, claiming to have seen an old friend. There was no doubt in his mind whether to leave or stay and wait for Jaemin; Jisung had already been in trouble with the managerial staff, and he had no intent of worsening their opinion of him. He made his way towards the door, weaving through the crowd that had formed in response to Jaemin’s presence; although Jisung had once resented the fact that he was lesser known, and less recognized, than some of the players on the senior team that were within the same age group as him, he was now grateful for the lack of recognition towards him.

 

Still, it seemed that the universe was hellbent on complicating Jisung’s life, as his drink collided with the shirt of a stranger.

 

And Jisung fled.

 

-

 

Jisung could feel the familiar sinking of his heart as players from both teams were chosen for the penalty shoot-out that would undeniably start within the next ten minutes. He spotted the opposing goalkeeper easily, due to the latter’s neon green uniform, noting how relaxed his Chinese counterpart seemed. Jisung, meanwhile, couldn’t have calmed himself if he had tried, choosing to remain near the net he had been assigned during the second half. He knew it hadn’t been his best game; the fact that the game had ended up with a score of 0 - 0 had been all due to the players on the field. He was immensely lucky to have gifted defenders playing with him — without them, he was almost certain the score would’ve looked much, much worse. 

 

Either way, there was nothing he could do, except attempt to calm himself down as he noted the players that would be taking the first five shots — Xu Minghao, Wen Junhui, Dong Sicheng, Huang Renjun, and Zhong Chenle.

 

_ Chenle _ . 

 

Jisung quickly covered his face with his gloves, hoping that the midfielder wouldn’t realize that he had been the one who had spilled tea on him. Jisung’s day only seemed to be getting increasingly worse, and he was already waiting for the match to officially end so that he could go home — or at least, go back to the hotel the team was staying at — and curl up in his sheets. 

 

Instead, Jisung stood aside as the Chinese goalkeeper took his place, rolling his eyes as soon as one of the staff members that usually yelled at him came over to him.

 

“They’re not using Zhou Mi,” the staff member noted, glancing towards the net as Jeonghan took his position, getting ready to take the first penalty shot. “Their current goalkeeper is a newbie, pretty much. He used to be a midfielder but decided he wanted to play as goalkeeper; that’s probably why they brought—”

 

“Zhong Chenle.”

 

“Someone’s been paying attention to sports news,” the staff member laughed. “My point, though, is that it’s likely that they haven’t fully trained their new goalie in penalties — at least, not as much as you have — so you’re fine as long as you save one goal more than he does.”

 

The staff member then left him, but Jisung felt a lot better as he watched the other goalkeeper fail to save Jeonghan’s shot — the ball making its way into the upper right corner of the net with a slight spin. Once instructed, Jisung exchanged places with the Chinese goalkeeper, who looked noticeably more nervous after having missed his first penalty shot. Perhaps if he had been the substitute goalkeeper rather than the starter, or current goalkeeper — not that the distinction mattered, once a starter, a goalkeeper was usually not substituted out — he would’ve comforted his rival. Instead, he was focused on his own task ahead. As the rankings stood, China would advance into the 2022 World Cup no matter what, based on previous matches; meanwhile, South Korea had to win.

 

-

 

The last place that Chenle would’ve expected to encounter the person that had spilled his tea on him, right before a World Cup qualifier match, was the World Cup qualifier match. He paid careful attention to the latter, hoping to find something that would assist him when his time would come. 

 

It was clear that Jisung — Renjun had been the one to provide Chenle with the goalkeeper’s name — was much more determined than their team goalkeeper; although Chenle knew that the Chinese team was guaranteed to get into the World Cup, he still found the goalkeeper’s attitude ridiculous, watching as the latter let the third goal pass him by. At least Jisung was trying.

 

“I’d hate to be the goalkeeper facing Sicheng ge,” Dejun muttered beside him, watching as Jisung took his position in front of the net. The Korean goalkeeper kept his eyes glued to Sicheng as he readied himself. So far, Minghao had caught Jisung off guard, sending it to the left, rather than the right, and Jisung had failed to block Junhui’s goal by centimeters. But if there was anything Sicheng shined in, it was penalty shots. “I’m not even a defender and I hate going against him during practice.”

 

Jisung blocked the shot.

 

-

 

By the time it was time for him to face Chenle, Jisung had let go of his nerves. He’d managed to block Sicheng’s shot with ease, and kicked Renjun’s to the side. It was much more than the other goalkeeper had managed, and the grins on the managerial staff’s faces were present for the first time in the match. Now it all came down to Chenle, who had a calm expression.

 

Jisung dived.

  
  
  


Despite the grand amount of publicity that had risen from Jisung’s performance at the match against China, Jisung saw little to no play time as the World Cup progressed. It didn’t bother Jisung; after all, going long stretches of time without play time was something he was used to. But he also knew that the coach had a habit of putting him in whenever there was no other hope, when he had no faith in their other goalkeepers.

 

It didn’t mean he had faith in Jisung, though. 

 

However, it meant that Jisung had more free time than some of the others, allowing for him to go around Tokyo — as the host country, Japan had qualified for the World Cup automatically, something that Doyoung liked to joke about — frequently. He’d even tried mingling with players from other countries, but that hadn’t gone great for him, either. This left Jisung alone most days, as the friends that he had on the team — namely, Jisung, Jeno, Mark, and Donghyuck — were among those that were consistently chosen to play.

 

Something that did consume his time, though, were the not-so-secret parties held by some of the other countries’ teams; Jisung didn’t drink, and he certainly never intended to do so for a long time, but he knew of many of his older teammates that did. 

 

And that was where he found himself facing Chenle again, the latter smiling as Jisung nearly spilled his drink on him. 

 

(He didn’t. At least, not this time.)

 

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” Chenle said, reaching for one of the non-alcoholic drinks that were being offered; pickings were slim, as the majority of the players involved in the so-called “party” were of age, so Chenle ended up picking up the first bottle that he could find. “Do you want to sneak out with me?”

 

“The best midfielder from China’s asking me to hang out with him?” Jisung said. “I’m honored.”

 

After establishing a meet-up time, Jisung hurriedly made his way towards his hotel; he hadn’t had much to look forward to, despite it being his first World Cup, but it didn’t bother him as much as he had expected it to. After all, Jisung reasoned, he had barely turned twenty and he was sure to have more World Cups in the future, so he might as well enjoy his time now.

 

-

 

Jisung’s hands trembled slightly as he adjusted his gloves, the finality of the situation sinking in — that his team had made it to the World Cup final, and that he was here, with them. He took a moment to glance around at everything, making an effort to commit everything to memory as he walked with his team. 

 

“Someone has an admirer,” Jeno teased, and Jungwoo quickly pointed towards the direction of their entrance. Temporarily confused, Jisung looked around for anything in particular that seemed out of the ordinary, before spotting Chenle in the crowd with a giant poster cheering him on. “He’s cute and he’s one of the best—”

 

“—midfielders the Chinese team has had in awhile, I know,” Jisung finished. He’d decided that he would definitely confess to Chenle soon, but the opportunity never seemed to come; the universe was against him, it seemed. Finally, though, he added, “I’m working on it.”

 

“You’re one of the best goalkeepers in the world, probably one of the youngest in a World Cup,” Jungwoo pointed out. “If you could get the team into the World Cup, you can confess to a cute boy.”

 

-

 

Renjun watched Chenle in amusement, noting how the latter tensed up whenever the opposing team managed to break through the Korean team’s defense. Each time, Jisung managed to stop the players from scoring — either hitting the ball away from the net, or stealing the ball before the player could attempt to score. Chenle sighed in relief, bringing another amused grin to Renjun’s face; not only did Chenle have the tendency to spam their group chat by waxing poetic about Jisung’s appearance, he also liked spamming their group chat with praise for Jisung’s goalkeeping technique.

 

To put it simply, Chenle was in love. 

 

“You’re not even the one playing,” Renjun pointed out, as Chenle let out the breath he had been holding. A player had managed to outrun Jungwoo, getting ready to score, only for Jisung to run out and kick the ball away just in time. However, as much as he had previously joked about abandoning Chenle mid-game and returning to their team hotel, Renjun found himself cheering for Jisung and his team members with Chenle.

 

“The game is stressing, okay?”

 

The game ended up in penalties, and Chenle screamed as Jisung managed to catch the ball, bringing the World Cup victory to his team. It didn’t matter if Chenle had wanted to see Jisung right then and there, reporters and others alike were all swarming the South Korean team. Jisung was among the players getting the most attention for his performance during the finale.

 

By the time Chenle returned to his hotel room, the hall his teammates were assigned to was unusually quiet; he figured that many of his own teammates were out celebrating, since some of them got along fairly well with the players of the South Korean team. Even Renjun had gone out with some of his friends, but not before he had repeatedly asked Chenle if him leaving was fine. This left him searching through Netflix for a suitable show or movie to occupy his time. However, the quiet atmosphere that had settled in the hotel room, as he scrolled through the selection of b-list movies he had found, was shattered by the insistent knocking at his door.

 

Chenle had initially decided to just let the person leave; if it was one of his teammates,  then he figured that he could put an excuse together, later. However, the knocking insisted, and Chenle finally got up, deciding that the catalogue of b-list movies wasn’t good enough, anyway. 

 

“Jisung?” Chenle asked, accepting the tea Jisung handed him. “Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, celebrating your World Cup win with someone special or something?”

 

“Okay then.” Jisung sipped the drink he had purchased, the dim hotel lighting seemed to emphasize the medal — why Jisung thought walking around the city with his World Cup medal still around his neck was a good idea, Chenle wasn’t sure — Jisung was still wearing. “Zhong Chenle, do you want to go out with me? We can figure the details as we go.”

 

“What’s in it for me?”

 

“Free tea.”

  
  
"Okay, sure then."


End file.
